William Prince, in 1828, in his Treatise on Horticulture, briefly described Smith Orleans, and seventeen years later A. J. Downing gave a short history of the variety. It is a seedling of the Orleans raised about 1825 by a Mr. Smith of Gowanus, Long Island, New York. By an error the variety was sent out as the Violet, or Blue Perdrigon, a smaller and very different fruit. Charles M. Hovey of Massachusetts, who secured trees of the Cooper from Prince, about 1831, believed this variety to be identical with the Smith Orleans in all characters. Downing could not agree with him but the present writers find that the two varieties are so much alike that it is impossible to distinguish between them. As is suggested under Cooper, they may be identical or they may have come true to seed from the same parent. The American Pomological Society recommended this plum for general cultivation in 1856.
Tree large, vigorous, spreading, open-topped, very productive; trunk rather rough; branches smooth, with few lenticels; branchlets of medium thickness and length, with long internodes, green changing to dark brownish-red, covered with thin bloom, lightly pubescent early in the season becoming almost glabrous at maturity, with few, small lenticels; leaf-buds of medium size and length, conical, appressed.
Leaves flattened or somewhat folded backward, obovate, two inches wide, three and five-eighths inches long, thick, velvety; upper surface dark green, rugose, with but few hairs along the narrow, deeply grooved midrib; lower surface silvery-green, covered with thick pubescence; apex abruptly pointed or acute, base acute, margin crenate, with few small, dark brown glands; petiole one-half inch long, heavily pubescent, tinged red along one side, glandless or with one or two small, globose, yellow glands usually at the base of the leaf.
Season of bloom medium, short; flowers appearing with the leaves, one and one-quarter inches across, white, with a yellow tinge; borne in clusters on lateral buds and spurs; pedicels five-eighths inch long, pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, with few scattering hairs; calyx-lobes above medium in width, obtuse, sparingly pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-serrate and with marginal hairs, reflexed; petals broad-obovate or oval, crenate, tapering to long claws of medium width; anthers yellow, filaments seven-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, shorter than the stamens.
Fruit intermediate in time and length of ripening season, one and five-eighths inches by one and one-half inches in size, oval, compressed, halves somewhat unequal; cavity shallow, narrow, abrupt; suture very shallow or sometimes a line; apex roundish or depressed; color dark purplish-black, overspread with thick bloom; dots numerous small, russet, inconspicuous; stem three-quarters inch long, pubescent, adhering to the fruit; skin below medium in thickness, tender, sour, separating readily; flesh pale yellow, juicy, tender, sweet, of pleasant flavor; good; stone clinging, one inch by five-eighths inch in size, oval, with very rough and deeply pitted surfaces, usually somewhat flattened, tapering abruptly at the base, blunt at the apex; ventral suture wide, blunt; dorsal suture with a groove variable in depth and width.
SOPHIE
Prunus munsoniana
1. U. S. D. A. Rpt. 263, Pl. VI. 1892. 2. Kerr Cat. 1894. 3. Waugh Plum Cult. 189. 1901.
Sophie is fast being lost sight of among the multitudes of native plums recently introduced. Without any very distinct merits it yet stands high among plums of its kind. The variety is a seedling of Wild Goose at first supposed by the originator, J. W. Kerr,[223] of Denton, Maryland, to have been pollinated by a German Prune which stood near. This is hardly the case, however, as no trace of Domestica blood can be detected in the variety. It is mentioned by the American Pomological Society in its catalog for 1899.